


Distance Between

by shadows_of_1832 (SaoirseVictoire)



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Small Town, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27733612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaoirseVictoire/pseuds/shadows_of_1832
Summary: Hearing her sister pass on the news of what’s happened to her classmates since graduation, what’s happened with her former roommates, and finally, what she hears of him…she wonders where time has gone, what she could have done and where she would be now if her focus had widened to allow more in. Maybe she’d be content as she is now, or at least, how she thought she was…
Relationships: Enjolras/Éponine Thénardier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Distance Between

It’s a peculiar feeling, the feeling of having left but never quite leaving. There’s never much of a distance between in geographic terms, but somehow, people still part and go their separate ways.

If Eponine could explain such a feeling to herself, she would; she never lived more than an hour’s drive from those she grew up with, and moved even closer for work after college and narrowing it to nearly fifteen minutes.

She hears murmurs of what happened to those she knew in high school through the grapevine. (Social media was never quite her thing). So-and-so got engaged, so-and-so just had their third kid. Most of them are people she hardly knew, but at least knew of, and such milestones become a shock to her; perhaps focusing on her studies and work play a role in that.

Then comes the news of her former college roommates, lovebirds since sophomore year of high school, having their first child two years after graduation from her sister; they’d been close friends once and parted on good terms when the household situation ended during their third semester…Why did the communication stop, when the phone numbers are in each other’s phones? Were they afraid she resented them, or was there some reason they resented her?

But then why visit the one time during their fifth semester to help with the one project out of the blue? Or check in on her and her family after a bad windstorm, after finding a tree had fallen onto the roof of her childhood home where her younger siblings still resided?

She isn’t sure. But there’s been no communication since, aside from the occasional run-in at community events (an easy thing to do in a small town).

Finally, there’s the one person she thought held her heart.

There’s murmurs from her sister from the now-and-again sightings of him. Enjolras somehow never managed to leave, assisting with the family wine shop (something that surprises her, as she knows he intended to get out of that small town to do so much).

It’s a complicated relationship with him, she believes. There was a period of time they were together near high school’s end, but parted before college. Then there was another attempt where they tried again for a few months in a time, and somehow that fell apart too. She never quite picked apart what happened, if it was them or the distance between.

As for a third time, a sort of friendship rekindled before her college graduation, but as for getting together again, it was a question left unanswered. Perhaps that’s why the relationships failed, because he saw her more than a friend while she couldn’t get in her mind to think of him as something more.

And then, somehow, like the roommates before him, communication just…stopped. No texts from him, and she became too afraid to text anything out of…what? Fear? Fear of annoying him? Or was she afraid of getting close and letting him down again?

Over two years, nothing.

Hearing her sister pass on the news of what’s happened to her classmates since graduation, what’s happened with her former roommates, and finally, what she hears of him…she wonders where time has gone, what she could have done and where she would be now if her focus had widened to allow more in. Maybe she’d be content as she is now, or at least, how she thought she was…

Is she missing anything, or is life fine as it is?

One day, after one of her sister’s passing on of news, she picks up the phone, and types a text message to the number she has saved under his name.

‘ _Hi. I know it’s been awhile. I’m not sure if this is a valid number anymore. Anyway, I hope you’re doing well, and that you and your family are safe._ ’

And to her shock, hits send.

Afterwards, she sets her phone on the coffee table, expecting nothing of it, and walks away contemplating what she did, what triggered it (though she’s fairly certain what did), and why she thinks it completely awkward and not quite like her; she’s always been overthinking things and in the worst possible way.

Perhaps it’s better he ignores her and doesn’t answer.

But then she walks back towards the coffee table. The notification light flashes in the corner.

She pauses, then picks up her phone as if it could shatter with the slightest touch, and unlocks the phone to see an unread message on her screen. From him.

And she opens it.

‘ _Thanks. I hope you and your family is, too. It’s nice to hear from you. How have you been_?’

And she releases a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.


End file.
